Frustrated with trying to promote your Kindle eBook on your website, blog, and social media? Good news! You can advertise your Kindle eBook directly on Amazon—where people are already buying eBooks!—with Amazon Marketing Services (AMS).

The AMS program for Kindle eBooks is Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising which works very similarly to Google AdWords: You bid on the cost you want to pay when people click on your ads, and you only pay when they click.

To use this service, you will be required to set up an account on Amazon Marketing Services. Though it is free to set up, you will need to associate the account with a credit card so that advertising fees can be charged as incurred. To get started, click the "Promote and Advertise" button next your published Kindle title on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), then select "Create an ad campaign" on the following screen. Then to check the status and progress of your campaigns in the future, you can go to your Reports in KDP and click the Ad Campaigns tab which has a link to your AMS advertising dashboard.

After setting up your AMS account, you can now choose what type of ads you'd like to run. There are two main ad types: Sponsored Products and Product Display.

Sponsored Products Ads

Sponsored Products ads will appear on Amazon’s website on desktop, mobile, and the Amazon app. Depending on where your ad gets placed, a 50 to 150 character description (that you create) may appear along with the Kindle eBook product info. When, where, and how your ad exactly appears will depend on the keywords you choose, how your PPC bid compares with competing advertisers, and Amazon's algorithm for ad placement.

You have two choices when it comes to choosing keywords: Auto and manual. Auto targeting lets Amazon’s algorithms choose what keywords are relevant to your book. Manual targeting lets you choose the target keywords, although Amazon will make some suggestions for your consideration. Going with manual targeting for Sponsored Products ads gives you a lot of flexibility in managing your AMS campaigns since you can turn keywords on and off, add keywords, and change bids for each keyword as you wish over time.

Be aware that if there are other advertisers who bid $0.25 (or more) per click and your bid is something small such as $0.05, chances are your ad will be placed lower and/or fewer times than those of your higher bidding competitors, even if your keywords are a relevant match. Your ad might not appear at all if there are many other higher bidders. But don't play a fool's game by making ridiculously high bids to beat out your competition! The ratio of actual purchases to clicks can be low and you may waste your money.

How Much Does It Cost?

Sponsored Products AMS ad campaigns can be set up with a budget for as little as $1 per day, with bids per click as low as $0.02 (as of this writing). You also have the choice of running the ad continuously (recommended for evergreen topic titles) or running for a specified period. Since a large portion of my backlist titles are evergreen, I leave ads for them run continuously.

Monitor your ads' performance regularly, at least monthly, and make needed changes to preserve your budget and boost ad performance. You may also choose to pause or terminate a campaign.

Product Display Ads

Product Display Ads can appear on the Amazon website for desktop underneath the “Buy/Add to Cart” button area on a product display page. It could also appear on Kindle e-readers.

As with Sponsored Products, a short, 150-character description may appear with the advertised eBook, plus your ad will include a 50-character headline.

When and how often it appears depends on the targeting. However, the targeting for Product Display ads is different than for Sponsored Products.

You can choose to have your ad appear on product detail pages for Related Products, which are products that are similar or would easily be associated with your eBook’s topic or genre. For example, if your eBook is a space science fiction novel, you might want your target your ad to appear on pages selling Star Trek books, DVDs, or merchandise.

Or you can choose to have your ads appear on product detail pages from Interest categories that would include your topic or genre. For example, if you write historical fiction, you could choose to have your eBook appear on pages selling historical novels. Note that for ads that appear on Kindle e-readers, Interest targeting is the only targeting option available.

How Much Does It Cost?

This is where many authors flinch! The budget for Product Display ads has to be set for at least $100. So you must be willing to spend up to $100 during the ad campaign period. Note that depending on your ad campaign parameters, you may or may not spend that entire $100. For example, I ran several Product Display campaigns and only spent a few bucks. The reason for this was that my Related Products, Interests, and/or bids may have limited the actual amount of times my ads appeared and were clicked during the campaign period.

Unlike Sponsored Products, Product Display campaigns are time bound, meaning that you must specify a time period for them to run. I've observed that the system only allows a campaign period of 6 months. You can also choose to have them run quickly, meaning that they are run as many times as possible, or smoothly, meaning that the ad placements will be spread out more evenly throughout the entire campaign period. Your choice will depend on your budget and goals.

As with Sponsored Products, monitoring Product Display ad performance is a must-do. You can make adjustments to bid, budget, and duration of a campaign.

I Got Great ROI. The ROI on my AMS advertising investments has been crazy good, on the order of a return of up to seven times my investment! But like other PPC advertising, it can be difficult to scale. Increasing your PPC bid per click will not always result in a proportional increase in sales. There will come a point of diminishing returns. This requires regular monitoring of your investment versus your sales, and continually making necessary course corrections.

Don't Expect Fast ROI. Because your AMS ads may not be shown often, this is not a get rich quick strategy. If, like me, you concentrate on low bids (usually less than $0.05), it can be even longer. As with all advertising and marketing, patience is required.

Lack of Detailed Analytics. One of the most frustrating things about the AMS system (as of this writing) is that it only offers analytics on an all-time basis. For example, you cannot figure out how an increase in PPC bids for this quarter resulted in new sales this quarter. Because the amount of work to extract more detailed insight from these reports would be difficult to impossible, it’s probably best to just be satisfied with the cumulative figures until the AMS reporting improves (we hope!). And at least you get an idea of your grand total investment versus your grand total of sales resulting from the ads.

Sponsored Products and Manual Targeting Trumped Product Display and Auto Targeting (For Me). With one exception, I’ve found that Sponsored Products ads where I manually targeted keywords have performed much better than Product Display ads or any auto-targeting choices. In fact, as of this writing, I haven't made even one sale from Product Display ads after 6 months of running them. However, another author I know has reported good results with Product Display ads. It truly depends on your eBook’s topic and market. So experimentation is required to find the right mix of Sponsored Products, Product Display, manual and automatic targeting for your eBook ads.

As with all Amazon and KDP programs, see their website for current policies, procedures, and opportunities.

Disclaimer: Both the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparation of this information. No representations or warranties for its contents, either expressed or implied, are offered or allowed and both parties disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for your particular purpose. The advice and strategies presented herein may not be suitable for you, your situation or business. Consult with a professional advisor where and when appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or punitive, arising from or relating to your reliance on this information.

Questions & Answers

Questions must be on-topic, written with proper grammar usage, and understandable to a wide audience.

Question:

How did you manage to get your bids to win at two cents? I've never won a bid for less than forty-seven cents. When I set the amount to anything lower, I get nothing.

Answer:

I did make bids as low as $0.02 or $0.03. And it depends on what you define as "won." I'm going for the long haul and just want some representation in the AMS ad space. But, like with Google AdWords, I'm not looking to "win" bids. Played that game and it cost me dearly with no results.

Admittedly, it is difficult to find the sweet spot where your ad investments, on AMS or elsewhere, bring the optimal ROI. It does require some experimentation.

What's even more difficult with AMS is that your ad could generate some Kindle Unlimited or Kindle Online Lending Library (KU/KOLL) reads, but those don't show up in your AMS ad sales results. And you have to be enrolled in KDP Select to get those KU/KOLL royalties.

Comments

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AUTHOR

Heidi Thorne

9 months agofrom Chicago Area

Hi Lawrence!

Glad you had the sense to think about the impact of your advertising decision before diving in.

Isn't that interesting that your print book sales are bigger than your eBook sales. Depending on the month, it is often that way for me, too. As well, I usually make more money from my print books than eBooks.

When you're ready, do look at AMS again. I think it's pretty cost effective. But you do have to be conservative with your bidding and continuously monitor your ad spend to make sure it doesn't run out of control. You can do some bid changing, or terminate a campaign if needed. See the AMS documentation for what to do.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by and sharing your experience with us! Have a great weekend!

Lawrence Hebb

9 months agofrom Hamilton, New Zealand

Heidi

I looked at this form of advertising a while back, and it seemed good, but my budget wouldn't stretch that far, and I didn't want to have to explain why the credit card was being charged for things that weren't appearing in the mailbox!

At the moment, sales of 'hardcopy' are outstripping eBook sales, but I've got a few plans I'm working on.

I'll certainly keep my eye on Amazon Marketing Service for the future.

Lawrence

AUTHOR

Heidi Thorne

11 months agofrom Chicago Area

Hi Linda! AMS ads were new to me, too, until about a year ago. When Amazon started integrating it into the KDP system, it made it easier to do. If you use it for any Kindle eBooks you launch, let us know how it goes. Thanks for stopping by and have a beautiful day!

Linda Crampton

11 months agofrom British Columbia, Canada

This is new information for me and is something that I will have to consider carefully. Thank you very much for sharing all the facts, Heidi. I appreciate the education that I'm getting by reading your articles!

AUTHOR

Heidi Thorne

11 months agofrom Chicago Area

Hey, Nikki! If you ever write a book that you decide to advertise with Amazon's AMS, let us know how it goes. Happy Monday!

Nikki Khan

11 months agofrom London

Great information Heidi Thorne,, can be useful in future,,haven’t used amazon for any advertising purposes though.

Russ Moran - The Write Stuff

11 months agofrom Long Island, New York

You're so right, Heidi. The "early days of self-publishing" are gone. I'm writing a nonfiction book entitled The Novel - A Writer's Guide - Discover the Joy of Writing Fiction. In it, I discuss the statistics showing how book publishing is positively exploding. Not just a crowded market, but a glutted one. Keep up the good work, Heidi.

AUTHOR

Heidi Thorne

11 months agofrom Chicago Area

Bill, stubborn is good in order to preserve your budget. But if you give it a try one day, I'd love to hear about your experience. Thanks for chiming in and have a great week!

AUTHOR

Heidi Thorne

11 months agofrom Chicago Area

Dale, I wasn't aware of it for a while either. And I understand it's not been available for too long. So I'm sure this program will continue to evolve and offer opportunities for writers like us. So stay tuned. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

AUTHOR

Heidi Thorne

11 months agofrom Chicago Area

Flourish, I'd like to think I'm savvy. But I think it's more than I've "learned from experience." ;) Thanks for the kind words and have a lovely week!

AUTHOR

Heidi Thorne

11 months agofrom Chicago Area

Robin, glad you agree! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

AUTHOR

Heidi Thorne

11 months agofrom Chicago Area

Richard, you got that right! Marketing is way tougher than writing. Let us know how your Sponsored Products ads go. Give it time, though, to start seeing results. Thanks for chiming in and good luck with your NaNoWriMo novel publishing!

Russ Moran - The Write Stuff

11 months agofrom Long Island, New York

Thank you so much for your advice on this aspect of selling books online. I've self-published 12 novels since 2013. My first became a number one Amazon bestseller and won five awards. My first payment from Amazon was over $2,000. I thought I had found a great business. Not so. My books since then, which improved with experience, only make a few bucks. I'm going to check out AMS as you suggest. Thanks again for helping us Indies.

Bill Holland

11 months agofrom Olympia, WA

I'm a bit too stubborn to pay Amazon anything, but thanks for the information. Have a superior Monday my friend.

Dale Anderson

11 months agofrom The High Seas

Great article, Heidi. I was completely unaware that Amazon had such a service but then, that's the great thing about Hubpages, people like you spread the word about such things. Going to read some more of your work right now.

FlourishAnyway

11 months agofrom USA

There is so much to learn from someone as savvy with marketing as you. Excellent!

Robin Carretti

11 months agofrom Hightstown

Very nice Amazon is great so many of my ebooks and regular ones and poem are on there too good luck all the best to you

Richard Bivins

11 months agofrom Charleston, SC

Once I'm ready to publish the novel I worked on for NaNoWriMo, I intend to use sponsored product ads. The novel is the 3rd in my series and expect it to do as well or better than the previous titles, though I'm not getting my hopes up. Writing is the easy part... Marketing is for the birds...

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